Discussions being held on library expansion

SUMMERSIDE - Discussions are underway between the City of Summerside and the Friends of the Rotary Regional Library on expanding the facility.

Gerard Greenan, a member of the friends and a Summerside Rotarian said, the Rotary Club is undertaking the library as a signature project for Summerside.

“It’s no secret that with the popularity of the existing library, it has certainly outgrown itself,” he said. “With the city, having declared that the upstairs is no longer to be used by patrons we are forced into doing something.”

Greenan said the Friends of the Rotary Regional Library have repeatedly tried to impress upon the city the need to expand the library for several years.

“It’s gotten to the point where something has to be done because the library continues to get a lot of patrons and used extensively,” he said. “The library services are provided by the province. They staff and provide the materials but it is the responsibility of the municipality to find a location. So, that’s where we are. It is a city building. If it needs to be expanded we need to look at the costs.”

Greenan the friends are looking at what would need to be done, structurally, to expand the existing building and discussing with the city the possibility of a new location.

“We’re nowhere near making a final decision,” he said.

The library is housed in the former CN railway station on the waterfront and the issue of it being a heritage property could come into play.

“There are ways of expanding it,” Greenan said. “We were informed that new builds would go by then National Building Code and because it would be a new build connecting it to an older one then the older one would have to be brought up to the national code.”